Coronation Street fans disagree on a lot of things.
While some have loved the deluge of crime plots, baddies and real-life issue storylines, others have found themselves reaching for the remote amid the much darker tone the show has adopted.
Some feel Maggie Driscoll (Pauline McLynn) is the best recent addition to the show, while some have lamented the decision to make her a murderer and retroactively tie her in with Jim McDonald (Charles Lawson).
This isn’t a new thing. The daddy of all soaps has always provoked deep controversy among its viewers. Sarah Platt’s (Tina O’Brien) teenage mum storyline back in 2000 was praised by some but decried by others as ‘glamourising’ the issue. David Platt’s (Jack P Shepherd) rape storyline was equal parts praised for shining a light on a little-discussed topic and slammed for it’s incredibly bleak premise.
One thing all fans agree on, though? We hate it when bad things happen to Roy Cropper (David Neilson).
Arson attack on Roy’s Rolls
Metro understands that an upcoming storyline, which will air next month, will see the legendary café become the location of a vicious arson attack.
Upcoming scenes will show a devastating fire break out after someone douses the place with petrol, all while Roy is catching some z’s upstairs.
With Roy’s flat full of his train memorabilia and, most importantly, his memories of beloved wife Hayley Cropper (Julie Hesmondhalgh), it seems the destruction wrought on our Royston will be far worse than the loss of his long-time business.
And that’s presuming he makes it out of the inferno alive…
Roy is a long-time and deeply beloved figure in Weatherfield. Surely bosses would never kill him, right? Right?!
Who could be behind the arson attack?
Grotesque stalker Mal Roper (Tim Treloar) arrived on the cobbles with a bouquet of flowers and a bunch of fives for Roy. Roy had developed a platonic, pen-pal relationship with a woman named Alice after writing to her son in prison.
Convinced Roy had been having an affair with his wife, Mal had arrived to warn him off, though was embarrassed when Roy and his niece, Nina Lucas (Mollie Gallagher), confirmed that there’d been no romantic intent from Roy, causing him to apologise and run off.
At the Chariot Square hotel, he encountered Bernie Winter-Alahan (Jane Hazlegrove), who’d hit her lowest ebb after the death of her son-in-law, Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank), and the two spent a drug-fuelled night together.
Though Bernie determined to put the night, and Mal, behind her, he’s made it increasingly difficult, with an insidious stalking campaign and further blackmail after her son, Kit Green (Jacob Roberts) stepped in to defend his mum.
With an established beef with Roy and Bernie being an employee of Roy’s Rolls, will Mal decide to take out all of those who he believes have wronged him in one fell swoop?
Another of the Street’s many wrong’uns, Jodie Ramsey (Olivia Frances-Brown), has also been working at the café amid her campaign to make sister, Shona Platt’s (Julia Goulding) life a misery.
It’s not just Shona who’s found herself in Jodie’s cross hairs, though. Her creepy ‘trophy box’ contains numerous items from various enemies she’s made since her arrival, including a cut out picture of Bernie.
While we’re still unaware of the true scope of Jodie’s backstory and her, frankly barmy, behaviour, could she be behind the blaze?
Or, scarier still, could she and Mal team up?
